tractorsfandomcom-20200215-history
Tractor
A merger is a non-automated process by which the content of two pages is united on one page. Reasons to merge a page include the following: unnecessary duplication of content, significant overlap with the topic of another page, and minimal content that could be covered in or requires the context of a page on a broader topic. Discretion should be exercised to make sure merging does not result in an article that is too long or drawn out, short articles that can be shown to be expanded, or if said short articles are of a discrete enough topic that merging is not possible. Merging results in a redirect to the parent page(s) with some or all content cut-and-pasted into that page(s). A comment in the must be made in the pages being merged as to where they are being merged to, and it must be noted in the parent page(s)' edit summary where the content from other pages are being merged from; this is done to preserve attribution under the Creative Commons Share-alike 3.0 license. Do not use the following procedure to propose a category merger. This should be requested at Tractor & Construction Plant Wiki:Categories for discussion, which uses a separate template. Also, history mergers cannot be proposed using this method. See Tractor & Construction Plant Wiki:How to fix cut-and-paste moves#Parallel versions for the reason why this is so. Rationale There are several good reasons to merge a page (examples from Wikipedia): #'Duplicate': There are two or more pages on exactly the same subject and having the same scope. #'Overlap': There are two or more pages on related subjects that have a large overlap. Tractor Wiki is not a dictionary; there does not need to be a separate entry for every concept in the universe. For example, "Flammable" and "Non-flammable" can both be explained in an article on Flammability. #'Text': If a page is very short and is unlikely to be expanded within a reasonable amount of time, it often makes sense to merge it with a page on a broader topic. For instance, parents or children of a celebrity who are otherwise unremarkable are generally covered in a section of the article on the celebrity, and can be merged there. #'Context': If a short article requires the background material or context from a broader article in order for readers to understand it. For instance, minor characters from works of fiction are generally covered in a "List of characters in ", and can be merged there; see also WP:FICT. Merging should be avoided if #The resulting article is too long or "clunky" #The separate topics could be expanded into longer standalone (but cross linked) articles #The topics are discrete subjects and deserve their own articles even though they may be short - Stubs are OK Merging—regardless of the amount of information kept—should always leave a redirect or, in some cases, a disambiguation page in place. This is often needed to allow proper attribution through the edit history for the page the merged text came from. Superfluous redirects do not harm anything, and can be helpful in finding articles, e.g. from alternative names. It also reduces the chances of another similar (duplicate) page being created You may find that some or all of the information to be merged is already in the destination page. That is fine; you can feel free to delete the redundant information and only add the new stuff. If there is no information to be added to the destination page, you can simply redirect the other page there, but please make this clear in the edit summary. Following a merger a copy edit may be required to better integrate the new material. Proposing a merger Users may determine whether the pages need to be merged. In most circumstances, a local discussion should be started to attract sufficient input. This will usually occur on the proposed destination page's discussion page,If the intended destination is a combination article that does not exist, do not create its Talk page, as it may be speedy-deleted WP:CSD#G8 or nominated at Tractor & Construction Plant Wiki:Miscellany for deletion. but multiple proposals may be grouped in one place, such as a relevant WikiProject. This should include proposal itself (the intent), the list of the affected articles, and a merger rationale. Perform the following steps: Tagging multiple articles If multiple articles are proposed to be merged, it helps to be as informative as possible so that other editors know what exactly is going on with a certain topic. On the tops each of the articles that are being proposed to be merged, add the following template: }} Add to the top of the destination article the following template: }} Mergers as a result of deletion discussions While mergers are generally not proposed (as well as discouraged) from the onset of Articles for Deletion (AfD) discussions (also see Tractor & Construction Plant Wiki:Deletion policy#Alternatives to deletion), it is not uncommon for editors, in an effort to mediate and/or compromise, to suggest that the article(s) nominated for deletion be instead merged to a parent article. If there is a rough consensus for a merger at the end of a deletion discussion, the following template will be placed on the top of the nominated article: The following template would also similarly be on the destination article's discussion page if such a consensus for merging has occurred: This lets as many users involved in those pages know that content is to be merged as a result of a deletion discussion. It is the involved editors' job, not the closing adminstrators' job, to perform this merger. Perform the merge in the similar fashion as described above and in to perform the merger. Performing the merger There are two types of mergers, "full mergers" and "selective mergers" (also known as "smerges"). While some mergers can be done boldly, most others (as described above) need a rough consensus that support a merger. Perform the following steps to merge an article into another article: #'Copy' the content from the merged page(s) (either all the content for a full merger or some of the content for a selective merger) and paste the content in an appropriate location at the destination page. Save the edit on the destination article, leaving the following edit summary (Note: this is required by the Creative Commons Share-alike 3.0 license): #::Merged content from [[']] to here. See [[Talk:#]]. #Redirect' the article whose content was just merged by replacing ''everything with the following: #::#REDIRECT [[']] #:If the content was merged to a single section within the destination article, then it is recommended that the article be redirected directly to that section. In that case, replace everything with the following: #::#REDIRECT [[# '']] #:Save the page, leaving the following edit summary: (''Note: this is also required by the CC-BY-SA): #::Merged content to [[#'']]. See [[Talk:#'']]. #'''Tag the destination article s discussion page with the following: #:: #'Check' on the source article's page (i.e. type the source article's name in the "Page" box) and fix any double redirects. #'Provide further attribution' by using the template. See the template's documentation and for more details. Pages to merge * Current pages tagged for merging can be found at Category:Articles to be merged and Category:Merge by month lists pages that have been tagged for merging on a particular month (tagging was begun in September 2006 on wikipedia). Tractor wiki added a merge template in 2009 * Tractor & Construction Plant Wiki:Proposed mergers has a list of pages that are proposed to be merged, with discussion and explanation (this is an optional step; all of these articles should have merger tags as well). See also *Category:Articles to be merged, contains all articles that need to be merged *Category:Merge by month, contains articles that need to be merged, sorted by month *Category:Merge templates, contains all possible merger templates that can alternatively be used in merger proposals *Category:Redirects from merges, contains completed merges that have been redirected to their target articles *Tractor & Construction Plant Wiki:Article size *Tractor & Construction Plant Wiki:Merge and delete *Tractor & Construction Plant Wiki:Moving a page *Tractor & Construction Plant Wiki:Proposed mergers, a list of all outstanding proposed mergers, as generated by a bot *Tractor & Construction Plant Wiki:Template messages/Merging ;Articles on Wikipedia with some relevant info & ideas *Wikipedia:Content forking *Wikipedia:How to fix cut-and-paste moves *Wikipedia:Splitting *Wikipedia:Articles for merging, a failed proposal Notes Category:Tractor Wiki maintenance Category:Tractor Wiki merging